GB Rider Profile; Oliver Towned

This Sunday's GB Rider Profile will be on Oliver Townend. In 2009 he won both Badminton and Burghley Horse Trials on Flint Curtis. The FEI rankings currently put him at 4th in Great Britain and 6th in the world.

Oliver is from Yorkshire and used to be based near the Whitaker family. He has ridden since a young age and has been very successful since his early teens, competing at Horse Of The Year Show and riding for GB on the pony Eventing team in the European Championships. 

He had a bad fall a few years ago during a competition in which he was knocked unconscious. He was wearing one of the inflatable body protectors and says he may not have still been alive it wasn't for this body protector. 

Here is the link to his website; http://www.olivertownend.com/. He also has his own range of clothing, equipment and leather goods; http://www.townendonline.co.uk/.

He currently has a number of horses he is riding including ODT Sonas Rovatio and Imperial Master. I am unsure which horse he would want to ride at the Olympics.

Oliver is also involved in social networking and has a Facebook page and a Twitter page where he keeps people up to date with what he is doing. He has also won and been runner up in the Equestrian Social Media Awards in the past.

Below is a video of an interview with him (although he is being very naughty and riding without a hat on at the beginning!).

This link is for another video of an interview about the Olympics and how he is starting his training. He said he is an outsider at the moment as many of his horses are young but he still hopes to make it onto the Olympic team. Click here! I hope he gets onto the Great Britain team as he is seen as one of the iconic British Eventers.

Love Laura
xxxx